Benuo iPad Case 10.5” Review

Cases for an iPad are a dime a dozen. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of iPad cases on the market. Some are great, some are not-so-great, and they all have their quirks. The Benuo iPad Pro 10.5” Case isn’t an outlier to this, but it is a case that I got to try out that’s worth talking about.

Full Disclosure: I was sent this case to review for free, but this doesn’t change my opinions for this review.

Look and Feel

To start off, this case is a leather folio style case that feels great to the touch. I am not sure how genuine the leather is, but it just feels way more expensive than it actually is.

Conversely, the microfiber cloth that is inside the cover isn’t as luxurious, and honestly does very little to clean the glass when it is closed. But if you want a case that cleans your iPad even the Apple Smart Cover doesn’t do a good job at that.

The final type of material used in the making of this case is a very study, yet somehow soft, plastic that houses the iPad. Putting it in the case is just as easy as taking it out, which is great. Not many cases have this kind of plastic material to house a case that is as forgiving and gentle to the iPad, which is a shame. Benuo gets this right on the money and they do it without it being a flimsy case that barely holds the iPad in place. I hope more companies looking to make cases for things like the iPad look into this material as it seems to be the sweet spot between security and flexibility.

One thing you will notice right off the bat with the look of this case is that the width of the case is bigger than other folio cases for the 10.5” iPad. That is because it offers a built in Apple Pencil holder next to the iPad. Made of the same material housing the iPad. It offers a secure and forgiving way to keep your Apple Pencil with you all the time without being a hassle to get it out for use.

To add even more to the pencil holder, Benuo takes the free space on the side and made a hole to put your Apple Pencil in as if it were a quill in an ink bottle. If you are using this for drawing in landscape mode, this added feature is a really enjoyable experience. It keeps your Pencil from rolling off the desk and allows you to keep it out of sight when you want but available when you need it. Benuo really put together a great looking, and even better feeling, case that is both simple in design but functional at that. But that isn’t to say there aren’t issues in that department entirely.

Functionality

The number one thing I look for in cases is a functionality that doesn’t look to reinvent the wheel. I don’t mind when companies do this, just not with a product I am going to use every day.

With that said, Benuo doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel with this case. They merely offer some extra flair to a type of case as old as the tablet itself; but Benuo does miss the mark on some of the more fundamental features you are looking for in a folio case.

For instance, the case does say it offers a sleep/wake feature. This is usually done by magnets as that is what Apple uses to determine if the cover is over the screen or not, but these magnets couldn’t hold a paper clip if it needed to. They are such weak and cheap magnets that if I tip my iPad to the side the cover rolls open without much resistance to stay attached to the screen. The cover has no attachability to the iPad leaving it flacid and pitiful.

This is really noticeable when I try and roll it up to use as a stand. If I tilt or even barely bump the triangle made to stand up the tablet it unfurls dramatically. It took some time to learn how to carefully place this case down on a surface while rolled up to not disturb the delicate connections these magnets make to stay together.

I will say that once you have the case leaning on the cover it somehow offers support to keep the magnets together, but it is still a horrible experience. It is probably the most disappointing thing about this case entirely. Magnets for a sleep/wake feature is nothing new, and has been perfected for years now, so why does Benuo drop the ball so hard on this? My only guess is to keep costs down and allow for a better price point.

Finally, I am also not a huge fan of how they put together the flap to hold the body and the cover together. Because the Pencil case is on the inside of the iPad, the cloth connecting the body and the cover has to be inward more. Which in turn means the flap itself is much longer than the normal folio cases. It seems to be also double the size than most other cases like this I have seen.

This is problematic because I hold my iPad in portrait mode when reading articles and apps with my left hand. Because of this, and the extra long flap, I am stuck with a fist full of flap when holding the case open for reading. In a perfect world I would have liked Benuo to keep the pencil where it is but offer a much better solution the to connection of the body and cover that didn’t result in an awkward experience when trying to hold it for reading purposes. I don’t personally know what the practical solution is, but I think between this and the poor magnets it is a hard sell to customers that use their iPad in many different positions day to day.

Conclusion

The Benuo case is very nice to look at and touch, but functionally it drops the ball on some very basic stuff. I think the company is on the right track from a design perspective, but they need to improve their quality for function, even if that means a slightly higher price point.

This review isn’t all bad though, I will be using it for those times where I am going to a family event and I need something to entertain me. It offers a place on my shelf, just not a daily case. but my uses aren’t that of the normal user.

I hope in the future Benuo keeps their design and materials as they were great to use. I also hope they spend more time on the fundamentals of the case and fix the issues with the magnets and hopefully find a better solution of the hinge keeping the cover and body connected.

If you want to give this case a try, and I recommend you do so even after my issues with it, you are going to have to wait for stock to come back in. the price I saw last I checked as $22.99 on Amazon. If you need an occasional folio case this isn’t a bad option to work with or watch videos on.

If you have any questions or want to let me know what you think you can find me on Twitter @iamJeffPerry. Thanks for reading!